I have also seen a few people who dislike the start of the story of POEII but like the story in the first game. Which I find interesting since personally it took me 5 tries to get into POEI due to the start feeling uninteresting. I never felt this with Baldur's Gate I and II. However, POEII had me hooked right from the start. It feels more like the BG games, which is good.
Also the main story being disconnected; Well I like that. It's more like BGII in this regard. Unlike BGI where there was not much of any side quests, it was all about the main story really.